When Field Bros’ 15-year cattle lease of the Kentish Plains expired in 1858, surveyor James Dooley was given the task of dividing these plains into saleable farm blocks for public purchase. In early 1859, Thomas Johnson Sr from Sherwood Hall near Latrobe, one of the largest landholders at Tarleton & Ballahoo, bought several blocks around Sheffield, including several blocks of open plains along both sides of the Old Paradise Rd out as far as the junction with Brays Rd. The middle block on the eastern side of Old Paradise Road included the site of Field’s cattlemen’s hut and stockyards. In fact, Old Paradise Rd was formed by following the muddy cattle tracks that didn’t end at their stockyards but continued downhill onto the lush open flats of the Dasher River, a favourite feeding ground for Field’s cattle known to the stockmen as Duck Marsh. Despite steep hills out along Old Paradise Rd, within the next couple of years early settlers had purchased all the blocks between Sheffield and Jeffries Rd, some with magnificent views of Mt Roland.
South of Jeffries Rd, all crown land granted to Mersey & Deloraine Tramway Co, had passed into the hands of Foster’s Estate and didn’t come up for sale until April 1887. This was the same year that a passable road from Sheffield was continued through the Dasher River up into the top of Paradise and called Paradise Rd. For 27 years, early settlers endured its notoriously steep hills until 1914, when an alternative connector road was constructed from Paradise westward over the Dasher River to join the road coming from Claude Road to Sheffield. For Paradise people, this new access road made it shorter and much easier to reach Sheffield. This new road was now proclaimed ‘Paradise Rd’, so the road we are currently discussing has, for the last 110 years, been downgraded to Old Paradise Rd.
In this article, we will highlight some of the pioneer settlers along Old Paradise Rd, fully aware that since then their original properties have been subdivided many times, with new homesteads continually added to this constantly changing district.
134 Old Paradise Rd Selika 102a Johnson, Langford
When Surveyor Dooley surveyed off the 102-acre middle block at 134 Old Paradise Rd for Thomas Johnson Sr in Dec 1858, he marked the position of Field’s hut and stockyards about 30 yds back from the roadway and added the following note: ‘Good open plain, well-watered with running creek. Slab hut 10x13ft and substantially built 4-railed stockyard with 3 separate compartments.’ Thomas Johnson Sr never came to live on the Kentish Plains, but his three eldest sons, Thomas Johnson Jr (25), J G (Jack) Johnson (21) and Lewis Johnson (19), came to manage his various properties for him, and he regularly visited them. When Thomas Johnson Sr died in 1867, all his Kentish properties passed to these three sons. His oldest son, Thomas Jr, & wife, Elizabeth Ann Johnson, took over the three blocks on the western side of Old Paradise Road but sold those on the eastern side. They had six children before they came to Sheffield and another five after they arrived. Thomas Johnson Jr was elected to the first Kentish Road Trust between 1866–1871. The Johnsons loved cricket, and when the locals first came together to play cricket in Harry Dawson’s paddock, it was Thomas Jr who taught them to bowl overarm instead of underarm. The locals loved it, and the game became popular throughout the district. The 1879 Kentish cricket team had three Johnsons in it, and Thomas Jr was one of two Kentish players chosen in the NW Coast team to play the visiting English XI at Latrobe in January 1888.
Soon after their arrival on the Kentish Plains, Thomas Jr and his brothers developed ‘gold fever’ and spent huge amounts of time prospecting, digging claims and buying shares that, in the end, didn’t amount to anything. Compared to their wealthy father, the three brothers ended up relatively poor. Thomas Jr had to sell his farm and finished life living in a rented house in Sheffield. 134 Old Paradise Rd was purchased by Wm Davis from South Africa who named it Selika. In 1914, unable to regain his health after being dragged around a paddock by a frightened horse, Davis sold out and returned to South Africa. Among Selika’s various owners were Law(rence) & Elizabeth Bray from Westbury. Law Bray (62) died at his residence, Selika, in Nov 1918 while his three boys were away in WW1. Jack Branagan, a close friend of Gustav Weindorfer, bought Selika in the spring of 1947. Branagan became a prominent farmer, local councillor, original board member of the Roland Boys’ Home and, after moving to George Town, author of several books on Tasmania. Sometime after John & Margaret Langford purchased the property, their house was destroyed by fire. John painstakingly built the present unique stone house, which has large bay-shaped lattice windows and a tiled roof.
213 Old Paradise Rd Green Hills 100a Dawson, Wasley
Oldest son of Launceston Town Surveyor Wm Dawson, J H (Harry) Dawson, married Ann Thompson of Torquay about 1855 and, in May 1859, bought the last remaining block along the Old Paradise Rd. It was in Dawson’s paddock that local cricket was first played. In Jan 1869, Dawson led the first overnight excursion party up Mt Roland to witness the sunrise. Harry Dawson served on the Kentish Road Trust between 1869–1872, becoming chairman 1870/1871. He is especially remembered for erecting the first log water-trough on the Stoodley hill. He was also chairman of the Kentish School Board 1870–1873. In 1874 Harry & Ann Dawson, with their family, sold out and followed Harry’s parents to Invercargill, NZ, where his father had become town surveyor. Other owners/lessees of 213 Old Paradise Rd were George Morse (prior to settling in Paradise), Geo Eagling, Reg Hope and family, Tom Wall and Colin & Linda Wasley.
214 Old Paradise Rd The Spinny Davis, Steane, Edbrooke, Allen
This property was first purchased by John Bell Davis, a London-born butcher who died 1897 aged 79 without offspring. Other owners/lessees included William Overton, James Morse, James Kirkcaldy, Reuben Austin, David Eagling, Herbert Austin, Hazel Lord and John Walsh. In 1953, when Sam Steane retired from being Tasmanian Conservator of Forests, he and his wife Cecily purchased this property and lived there for the next 12 years, contributing to the social life of Sheffield. In his first year in Tasmania, Steane introduced aerial photography of our state’s forests and produced the first aerial mosaics on a scale of two inches to one mile in Australia. After the Steanes left, in 1965 ex-HEC engineer Robert (Bob) & Connie Edbrooke pulled down the old house and built a new one Connie called ‘The Spinney’, meaning Little Wood. Both had a lot to do with establishing the Senior Citizens’ Club in Sheffield. In 1978, 7AD radio announcer Tas Allen with wife Sheena purchased the property. Close by The Spinney, the road branching off to the right is Brays Rd, originally Lords Rd. On Lord’s 160-acre property, two historic houses were built that now have separate addresses.
110 Brays Rd Roland View Edmund Lord & 2nd son Charles Lord
In 1860 Edmund Lord (49) & third wife Mary McMorgan (28) were among the first twenty people to settle in Kentish. Edmund built their home Roland View on a hilltop where it was claimed Surveyor N L Kentish first viewed the plains that afterwards bore his name. Edmund & Mary had two sons, George Edmund Lord (b1859) and Charles Marquis Lord (b1861), and three daughters. In Dec 1861 Edmund Lord was one of three original pioneers who purchased a township block on the corner of Main & Henry St to be set aside for a future church. Lord was a member of the Kentish Road Trust in 1866 and the local school board in 1870. When the two early Christian Brethren evangelists Moyse and Brown arrived in the Kentish district in August 1874, they were given lodgings in Lord’s home. Edmund died in April 1877 aged 70, leaving his two boys, George (17) and Charles (15), to carry on. After both brothers married, George chose to live and farm on the eastern half of Lord’s property (see below), while Charles & Mary (Lockett) Lord continued to reside for the rest of their lives at Roland View. Charles had two sons, Harry and Milton Lord (Sheffield), and three daughters. Charles was a member of the Kentish Council for 30 years and served one term as warden. He was a staunch member of the Sheffield Methodist Church and a local preacher for 55 years, being the first man to conduct a divine service at Wilmot. Charles died in April 1945 aged 83.
99 Brays Rd Fernhurst / The Gables Lord
George Edmund Lord (26) married Lucy Lane (22), daughter of George Lane, Sheffield’s first saddler, in July 1885. George built their first split-timber home, Fernhurst, in the southeastern corner of the block overlooking the Dasher Valley. Surviving children born at Fernhurst were: b1887 Edna (Mrs James Harvey), b1890 Eric, b1893 Chas Macmorgan, b1895 Bessie (Mrs Ken Dyer) and b1896 Edmund Harvey. Having outgrown Fernhurst, about 1900 George & Lucy Lord built The Gables down the hill close to the entrance road. Final children born at The Gables were b1900 Winnifred (Mrs Les Dyer) and b1904 Kenneth Lord. George Lord was the Kentish correspondent for Launceston’s Daily Telegraph for 25 years. About 1915 George & Lucy Lord, with three of their married children, began attending the Kentishbury Gospel Hall and later the Sheffield Gospel Hall. Several extensions were made to The Gables, including a room for Ruth Harvey to run a private school. When George Lord died in 1939, Arty & Amy Bray lived at The Gables followed by son Allan & wife Daisy Bray. From 1978, Iris Southwell bred horses on this property, then Alan Gent & Iris ran their 300-goat dairy farm on it. Eventually The Gables became derelict, but today a magnificent modern homestead adorns this historic property.
337 Old Paradise Rd Duck Marsh 100a Morris, Overton, von Steigliz
About 1866 John & Harriett Morris selected the green marshland beside the Dasher River that had been a favourite place for Field’s stockmen. It could carry more head of cattle per acre than any other farm in Kentish. John & Harriett had two sons, Bruce and John Jr Morris, and a daughter. Between 1880 and 1920, a bridge across the Dasher River at Duck Marsh allowed some locals to become pioneer settlers of Upper Beulah. It was also the most popular place for district picnics and local cricket matches. For over forty years, the Baptist churches held their Boxing Day picnics there. In 1894 John & Harriett purchased Highfield Farm at High St, Sheffield, while John Jr took over Duck Marsh. John Morris died 18 March 1911 (72) and Harriett Morris d 24 Oct 1907 (65).
About 1899 Wm Overton, eldest son of the pioneers Henry & Sophia Overton of Jeffries Rd, built a new family home 100 yards down Duck Marsh Rd for the purpose of establishing his Dr Overton’s Herbal Medicine Co, which flourished for most of the first decade of the 19th century. From the lush fields of Duck Marsh, they collected watercress, rosehips and a rich variety of native plants to which they added imported hops to create their curative concoctions. They were regularly advertised in newspapers and sold extensively by many chemists and general stores along the coast. Owen von Stieglitz married Florence Bawer, both of Beulah, in Feb 1921. After Overton, they purchased Duck Marsh Farm and built their new house, Wahroonga, along Old Paradise Rd. Children: Bill, Gwyneth, Lewis, Kevin and Desmond. In Oct 1978 when Tandara Home opened, Owen von Stieglitz was amongst the very first residents to arrive. Later, creative Etty McGraaf purchased the property, modernised the house and put in a Japanese Zen garden.
409 Old Paradise Rd Wattle Grove 56a Reuben Austin
In April 1862 young Reuben & Margaret Austin settled on the 58-acre corner block of Old Paradise Rd and Jeffries Rd that overlooked the whole of Duck Marsh. Prior to this, the newlywed couple spent nearly two years clearing Reuben’s uncle John Dyer’s block at Kentishbury. Prior to leaving England, Reuben had an excellent education, and during his lifetime was a great help to his less-educated Kentish neighbours. About 1965 Reuben Austin, Henry Overton, Wm Bilham and John Dawson decided to explore the southern side of the Dasher River. They climbed to the top of a very steep hill and, digging their heels into the ground, discovered it was rich, fertile soil. Jumping up on a large log and looking up at the glistening mountain, Reuben Austin exclaimed, ‘This is paradise!’ The name stuck and first appeared in print in the Examiner two years later in March 1867. But most of this Paradise land had been granted to Foster’s Estate and didn’t come on the market until 20 years later. After the Christian Brethren evangelists arrived, Reuben Austin was converted on 16 Dec 1874 and became an early leader at the new Kentishbury Gospel Hall. Reuben developed an intense interest in treating the sick with herbal and medical concoctions, pulling teeth and sewing up cuts. Austin became the financial backer behind Wm Overton forming Dr Overton’s Herbal Medical Co at Duck Marsh. In 1903, Reuben Austin who lost three wives and his two eldest sons, sold his farm to his oldest surviving son, John Austin. Reuben died in April 1922 aged 81.